Grow op leads to two-year prison sentence

A man behind one of the province’s biggest grow ops has been sentenced to two years in prison.

Kin Wa Au Yeung, 55, was convicted of producing a controlled subtance and sentenced recently in Red Deer provincial court. He was given credit for time served in custody and has 21 months remaining on his sentence.

Crown prosecutors stayed the charges against a woman, Dan Wang, who was arrested along with him.

The pair were arrested in October 2015 after Stettler RCMP and Green Team of Alberta Law Enforcement Response Teams(ALERT) sniffed out 3,284 plants and three kilograms of dried buds with a street value estimated at almost $4 million.

The marijuana was found at a Stettler barn off Hwy 12. Police said the barn housed a complex three-stage grow operation powered by an industrial-style generator.

Two pickup trucks were seized that had been retrofitted with hidden compartments in slip tanks believed used to smuggle the drugs.

At the time, it ranked as the second largest grow op busted by police.

ALERT was established by the provincial government to bring together the province’s law enforcement officers to fight organized and serious crime.